Your Complete Christmas Maths Toolkit: All The Free Resources, Ideas And Activities Recommended By Primary and Secondary Teachers
Bookmark this Christmas maths toolkit before you forget!
It’s full of all the best Christmas maths ideas, resources and activities you’ll need in the run up to Christmas and useful links from Third Space Learning and other maths providers to the top Christmas maths ideas and Christmas resources teachers have recommended to us over the years. It’s a useful collection of the best Christmas-themed maths problems, activities and games that allow your students to apply their maths skills to new contexts.
We’ve included activities for KS2, KS3 and KS4 so whichever key stage you are teaching, you’re sure to find a few new ways to incorporate some festive fun into your lesson planning for maths lessons this year.Â
Topical Maths Festive Pack 2025
Download this FREE resource which includes 21 real-world maths problems linked to the festive period between 31st October and 31st December, including Christmas & New Year!
Download Free Now!KS1 and KS2 Christmas maths ideas
In this section, you’ll find the most engaging Christmas resources and activities for Key Stage 2 that build on primary school students’ classroom learning.
From free printable Christmas colouring worksheets to word problems and riddles, you’re sure to find something that will engage your primary learners ahead of the Christmas holiday!
1. Christmas colouring worksheets
These FREE printable colouring maths worksheets can be made suitable for KS1 or KS2 and give the opportunity for children to strengthen their addition and subtraction or times tables skills to colour a Christmas picture.
Link: Christmas Maths Calculation Colouring Worksheet
2. Festive maths problems pack
This selection of maths problems lets you bring the Christmas spirit into the classroom without compromising on learning. This free printable download contains 21 reasoning and word problem-solving activities with a festive bent for you to use with your class.
The activities cover a wide range of topics, making them perfect for some surreptitious revision and consolidation of learning!
They’re designed for upper KS2 – years 5 and 6 – but some of the Christmas maths problems can be easily adapted for years 3 and 4.
Link: Third Space Festive Maths Pack
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Watch Skye in action3. Christmas maths activities
Enhance your pupils’ numerical reasoning and problem-solving abilities through these magic squares. Once pupils have grasped the concept, they can be challenged to make their own!
This activity, resource sheet and answers are available within our pack of 14 Christmas maths activities for KS1 & KS2.
Downloadable free resources: 14 Christmas maths activities
Link: Downloadable Christmas Maths Activities Resource
4. Plan a Christmas party
This classroom activity requires pupils to work in groups to plan and budget an exciting Christmas party. The activity can easily be extended to other curriculum areas such as English and art as students can write an invitation or create and decorate a poster to promote their party.
Link: Christmas Party Planning
5. Wellbeing advent calendar
The lead up to the Christmas school holidays can be a very exciting but also exhausting time. It’s easy to get caught up in the busy atmosphere and forget to take care of wellbeing – both your own and the pupils!
YoungMinds have created a wellbeing advent calendar to encourage you and your class to take some time out and enjoy the spirit of the season. With past activities ranging from sharing jokes to taking a moment to explore different breathing techniques, there is inspiration for every class.
Link: Wellbeing advent calendars
6. Santa maths challenge
Engage your students in a festive riddle and get them to apply their problem solving skills.
Link: Clever Santa | NRICH
7. Christmas coordinates to make a Christmas picture
In this activity, students must create differently coloured 2d shapes using the provided coordinates. These Christmas coordinates will combine to create Christmas pictures. What will it be – a snowman? A sleigh? A Christmas tree?
Link: Christmas Coordinate Pictures
8. Mr Barton murder mystery
Mr Barton Maths is probably already on your teaching must-read list, but the Maths Christmas Activities and Christmas Resources section is a particularly lifesaving collection around this time in the year.
Our top pick from Mr Barton’s selection is the Christmas Maths murder mystery, guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. Pupils are given a set of clue cards which define the task of finding out who killed Santa and give them all the necessary information to solve the mystery. This is a tricky but entertaining Christmas maths activity to encourage problem solving skills, and it is best suited to upper KS2.
Link: Mr Barton Maths
9. Christmaths competitions
The Christmaths Competitions website is a great resource to use with your Year 6 class. We love just how many activities with a Christmas theme there are to choose from, including A Cartoon Christmaths, The 12 days of Christmas, sorry Christmaths, and our personal favourite, Christmaths Crackers. These activities include fun ways to practise maths skills like sequencing, times tables, decimals, counting activities, and code breakers.
Link: The Christmaths Competition
10. Christmas tree baubles fractions
This festive activity is an excellent way to get your pupils’ brains working. This activity is differentiated so you can choose the best level of challenge for your pupils and the answers are provided.
Link: Christmas tree fractions worksheet
KS2 Christmas maths quiz
Looking for a Christmas maths quiz for your KS2 learners? Covering a range of Year 5 and 6 maths content, your pupils will love answering these Christmas themed questions. You could use this quiz to assess individual understanding of Year 5 and 6 content or to challenge your pupils in pairs or small groups to answer the questions correctly.
The quiz covers:
- Reading tables
- The four operations
- Calculating with measures
- Calculating with fractions
- Calculating with percentages
- Calculating angles
It’s available as an easily downloadable and printable file with answers included, making it a low prep fun activity.
Link: Downloadable KS2 Maths Quiz for Christmas
KS3 and KS4 Christmas maths ideas
Here, we’ve listed the best activity ideas for Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 (Foundation and Higher) students to keep all students engaged until the end of term.
Some involve working against the clock, working in pairs or teams while others provide opportunities for individual reflection and the application of problem-solving skills – all with a Christmas theme.
1. Christmas tree relay activity
This is a simple and fun maths activity, great for the maths lessons in the lead-up to Christmas. The resource includes three versions of the relay that build in complexity, making the activity suitable for students working towards a GCSE grades 1-5.
Students work in pairs or groups of three and race against the clock to answer a series of festive questions for the chance to win one of the 12 pieces of the Christmas puzzle! All questions come with answers and hint cards.
Downloadable free resource: Christmas Tree Relay Maths Activities
2. Bearing Christmas activity
Practise bearing with your students by giving Santa a three figure bearing for each stage of his journey.
Link: Andy Lutwyche
3. Maths puzzle race
Get your students up and out of their seats with a relay race. This fun activity requires children to work in teams to solve number puzzles on a range of topics and race against their fellow classmates while focussing on accuracy.
Link: Maths problem solving puzzles for Christmas
4. Christmas pudding ratios
This resource from TeachIt reinforces students’ knowledge of ratio and builds maths skills while helping students wind down for the Christmas holidays.
Link: Christmas Pudding Ratio Problems
5. Christmas quizzes
It’s time to get into the competitive spirit! Pixi Maths have developed quizzes for KS3, Foundation and Higher Students and provided handy powerpoint and answer sheet downloads.
Link: Pixi Maths quizzes for Christmas
6. Christmas puzzles
These puzzles are based on a publication from 1917, but the ideas are still engaging today and can be a great hook for students. Stem.org offers solutions and ideas for extension.
Link: Issue 75: Christmas Puzzles
7. Christmas revision advent calendars
It’s never too early to start revision! Here, you can find advent calendars for KS3 and GCSE Foundation and Higher students to review key concepts and identify topics for further revision. Consider making it a whole class challenge or ask students to work individually throughout the month. You could even motivate your students with a prize!
Link: Calendar revision resources
8. Fractal Christmas Tree
If you’re looking for something more hands-on and creative, while developing students’ knowledge of 3D shapes and nets, this activity is a great one. You can build an entire fractal Christmas Tree, complete with a Koch Snowflake star on the top.
Link: Building 3D Fractals
As always, TES Maths, Twinkl, Topmarks, Transum, Mr Barton Maths and Resourceaholic are great websites to go to access a great range of curriculum-aligned Christmas maths activities to engage your students in maths lessons this Christmas, so make sure you take a look at their selections for some festive fun.
From everyone here at Third Space Learning, we wish you a happy Christmas season and look forward to supporting teachers and students across the country in the new year through one to one online maths tutoring and through our library of games, resources and worksheets.
We’ve also got a range of other fun topical maths resources and classroom activities to support your lessons year round:
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